Top Dividend Funds

It's not just about yield: Choosing a dividend fund involves assessing its return, as well as the manager's unique strategy.

Over the past few years, dividend stocks have enjoyed an approval rating that would be the envy of any presidential candidate.

The elusive combination of income and safety these stocks augur has caused investors to pour money into dividend-stock mutual funds. Assets in equity-income funds have more than doubled since the end of 2008, from $99.6 billion to $222.8 billion through September of this year, according to Lipper. And fund companies are only too happy to feed that demand. In the past two years alone, asset...